Greek Silver & Bronze Coins

Lot 4143    SESSION 16 (9.30AM FRIDAY 31ST MARCH)    Greek Silver & Bronze Coins

Estimate $240
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $140

LYCIA, Masikytes, League Coinage, (1st century B.C.), silver hemidrachm, (1.53 g), obv. head of Apollo to right laureate, hair in formal curls, **[L U]* each side of neck, rev. lyre, M A either side, to right below a tripod, all within shallow field, (S.5295, Troxell period IV, series 6 110, SNG Cop.91, BMC 15). Extremely fine and scarce.

Ex Dr Adrian Carr Collection and purchased in 2001 from CNG with ticket.

Troxell ascribes Series 2 to the time of Brutus and this piece is described, by type to series 6 which Troxell believes is around 28 - 18 B.C. However the arguments for closely defining this whole series are very tentative. They are, nonetheless, clearly of the imperatorial period. Two denarii of Brutus are closely connected to this coin, Crawford 503/1 uses an exactly similar head of Apollo as obverse type, and Crawford 501/1 shows a lyre and a filleted branch on reverse, like the Lycian hemidrachm. After conquering Lycia, then, Brutus struck there not only Lycian League hemidrachms like our coin, but also Roman denarii using the same or similar coin types and in one case the same engravers.